Whither Mental Health Policy-Where Does It Come from and Does It Go Anywhere Useful?; Comment on “Cross-National Diffusion of Mental Health Policy”

Document Type : Commentary

Author

King’s College London, London, UK

Abstract

Factors influencing cross-national diffusion of mental health policy are important to understand but complex to research. This commentary discusses Shen’s research study on cross-national diffusion of mental health policy; examines the extent to which the three questions researched by Shen (whether countries are more likely to have a mental health policy (a) the earlier a country becomes a member of World Health Organization (WHO), (b) the more international aid a country receives, and (c) the more neighbouring countries already have a mental health policy) are in fact able to assess WHO’s impact on cross-national diffusion of mental health policy. The commentary then suggests a range of more specific questions which may be used to further elucidate the impact of WHO on an individual country, and considers the relative value of published mental health policy compared with the integration of mental health into national health sector strategies and other sector reforms, and concludes with a call for more integration of mental health across all WHO activities at international, regional and country levels.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

  1. Shen GC. Cross-national diffusion of mental health policy. Int J Health Policy Manag  2014; 3: 269-82. doi: 10.15171/ijhpm.2014.96
  2. Drezner DW. Globalisatrion and policy convergence. International Studies Review 2001; 3: 53-78. doi: 10.1111/1521-9488.00225
  3. World Health Organization (WHO). World Health Report 2001. Mental Health: new understanding, new hope. Geneva: WHO; 2001.
  4. World Health Organization (WHO). Mental Health Atlas 2011. Geneva; WHO: 2011.
  5. Mills A. Mass campaigns versus general health services: what have we learnt in 40 years about vertical versus horizontal approaches? Bull World Health Organ 2005; 83: 315-6.
  6. Jenkins R, Baingana F, Ahmad R, McDaid D, Atun R. International and national policy challenges in mental health. Ment Health Fam Med 2011; 8: 101-14.
  7. Ndetei DM, Jenkins R. The implementation of mental health information systems in developing countries: challenges and opportunities. Epidemiol Psichiatr Soc 2009; 18: 12-6.
  8. Kiima D, Jenkins R. Mental health policy in Kenya -an integrated approach to scaling up equitable care for poor populations. Int J Ment Health Syst 2010, 4: 19.  doi: 10.1186/1752-4458-4-19
  9. Jenkins R, Baingana F, Ahmad R, McDaid D, Atun R. Should low income countries and other development actors care about mental health. Commonwealth  Health Partnership 2013; 18-25. http://www.commonwealthhealth.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/                Should-low-income-countries-and-other-development-actors-care-about-mental-health_CHP13.pdf
  10. Jenkins R. How to convince politicians that mental health is a priority. World Psychiatry 2013; 12: 266-8. doi: 10.1002/wps.20073
  11. Jenkins R, Baingana F, Ahmad R,  McCDaid D, Atun R, Social, economic, human rights and political challenges to global mental health. Ment Health Fam Med 2011; 8: 87-96.
  12. United Nations General Assembly 2011. Political Declaration of the High Level Meeting of theGeneral Assembly on the Prevention and Control of Non-communicable Diseases A/RES/66/2 United Nations. Available from: http://www.who.int/nmh/events/un_ncd_summit2011/political_declaration_en.pdf?ua=1

Files

History

  • Receive Date: 31 January 2015
  • Revise Date: 23 February 2015
  • Accept Date: 21 February 2015
  • First Publish Date: 01 April 2015

Share

How to cite

Statistics